Automatic Beverage Delivery System

Members of theTransistor, a Provo, Utah based Hackerspace, are showing off their entry in the Red Bull Creation contest. This is an all-in-one energy drink delivery system. It can take a warm can of Red Bull from a reserve rack and turn it into a chilled cup of goodness in no time. And it (kind of) cleans up after itself too!

The process starts when a can is opened by lancing it through the side walls. At the upper right corner of the rig you can see the apparatus that is responsible for this beverage extraction technique. The drink drains from the newly created openings into a funnel below. It then enters a heat exchanger the team built by surrounding an aluminum pipe with several copper pipes. The copper has ice water circulating through them from the orange bucket that serves as the reservoir. By the time the drink gets to the cup on the bottom left it is ready to drink. The empty can is crush, falling into a bin and making space for the next in the 16-can backup supply.

19 thoughts on “Automatic Beverage Delivery System

    1. It shouldn’t. Typically, when a carbonated drink gets warm, the gases release from the liquid. This is why they tell you to serve it chilled. So the xhilling actually would help to preserve it.

      1. The problem is that by the time it’s chilled, most of the CO2 has already escaped. Just pouring the warm liquid onto a surface will significantly reduce the CO2 content.

        I would be surprised if there is much carbonation left when it reaches the cup.

        Well, this calls for a V2 with a pressure preserving sodalock (airlock for soda) on the draining mechanism, and a valve near the cup to release the chilled still pressurized soda.

      2. Or, you could just put the can through a flash chiller. I’m thinking of a rubber membrane that expands with water pressure to touch and surround the can, with cold water circulating inside.

    2. Hello fellow HaDers. I helped on this project.

      The Red Bull (or any other soda in a 8.4 to 12oz can) looses probably 25% of the carbonation going through the system. It’s not too bad, but it does loose some.

  1. I actually also helped with this project.

    Though it is true, you would have to clean the parts periodically, we actually had very little time to design and implement the project so all things considered I think it turned out alright for the amount of time given.

    You can also put regular sodas in it as well as we thought it would be useful if you wanted to have a nice ice cold …something else. :)

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